


Sweet Dreams in Rota

by Anonymous



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, OR IS IT, Pre-Relationship, Time Travel, its a dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27604436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Ash is 7 years old when he wakes up in Rota
Relationships: Arlon | Sir Aaron & Satoshi | Ash Ketchum, Arlon | Sir Aaron/Satoshi | Ash Ketchum
Comments: 3
Kudos: 53
Collections: Anonymous





	Sweet Dreams in Rota

**Author's Note:**

> This is a birthday gift to one of my closest and bestest friends

It starts when Ash is 7 years old. He closes his eyes at night, body tired from the morning’s activities, brain finally shutting down after excitedly daydreaming about his future pokemon team, and finds himself in a wide green field. He slowly stands up, taking in the beautiful lush forests and plains, with weirdly colored and shaped flowers littering the grounds. 

"Where am I? I swear I was sleeping on my bed a second ag-" From the corner of his eye he sees a black and blue pokemon he’s never seen before, not even from the meager books he read. 

"Oooooh!!! Waaaaah!!!! WHAT'S THAT!!!!" The boy, with no fear in his mind and only wonder, runs towards the fighting type with open arms. In his excitement, he forgets that maybe running towards a possibly wild pokemon may be dangerous. His yells don’t go unnoticed as both the pokemon and it’s trainer turn towards the source of the noise. 

While Ash’s motivations for his reckless action are innocent, the only thing Riolu sees is a small child running towards him at what seems to be mach speed. Seeing this approach as a threat, Riolu prepares to attack with a swift mach punch only to be stopped by a worried yell. 

“Riolu what are you doing!?” Riolu stops his mach punch mid hit and with no time to run off to the side, is inevitably tackled to the ground. Riolu finds himself underneath the child as Ash stares at the pokemon in wonder. The boy sits up, holding the pokemon up with him. “Oh my gosh you’re so cool!!! What type of pokemon are you!?” Through his excitement he doesn’t see the worried black haired 13 year old beside him. 

“Uh… hello? Can you let go of my Riolu?” the boy asks when he steps in to Ash’s view, causing the boy to look up. Ash stops gawking at the fighting type, finally taking notice of the other person around them. Embarrassed, Ash stands, rubs the back of his neck and scuff his shoes on the ground. “I’m sorry about that I didn't mean to attack your pokemon”

Riolu runs back to his master, glaring at Ash the entire time. “Ah, there was no harm done but next time I might suggest that you don’t run towards wild pokemon. It’s quite dangerous.” It’s only now, with no strange new pokemon to distract him, that Ash notices the strange way the kid in front of him dresses. The boy dressed like he was starring in one of those fantasy shows his mom liked to distract him with on TV. Ash figured that since this was probably a dream he might have to tell his mom not to play it on TV as much. 

Snapping himself out of his daydreams about knights and Charizards, Ash sees the wary look the Riolu and Aaron give him. He was used to the look coming from the other kids in Pallet but since this was his dream, Ash figured he might as well make a new friend. “Oh! I’m Ash Ketchum by the way!! What's your name? You dress pretty weird but cool at the same time!!!” Nailed it. 

“Ri-Riolu.” the Riolu has stopped glaring at him and honestly, if Ash wasn’t so distracted by the other boy’s sudden laugh, he swore the Riolu was looking at him like Ash was the weird one. “My name’s Aaron and this is my best friend Riolu. No one’s addressed me in such a way before but thank you for the compliment. I think?”

Ash’s excited rambling caught Aaron off guard. It had been a while since someone addressed him with such informality that Aaron, admittedly, felt a bit awkward around such a bright and innocent being.’ An innocent being that magically popped into private grounds. He looked to Riolu for help but found his Riolu resolutely ignoring him as if blaming Aaron’s steadfast studying on his lack of functioning social skills. So what if he only spoke to the princess and Riolu, it wasn’t that bad. 

Before Aaron can question Ash on how exactly the boy got into the palace gardens he is interrupted by an excited squawk. “Waaaah! You called him a Riolu right? What’s a Riolu?? I've never seen one before.” Which was odd but not outside the realm of possibilities. Riolus were rare and unless you were training to be an Aura Guardian, typical civilians wouldn’t know about them. 

“Yes this is a Riolu, they’re Aura sensitive pokemon and can tell what the emotional and physical state of people are.” Aaron explained this to an excited Ash, though Aaron could tell that Ash probably didn’t understand what they were talking about. Ash’s innate open nature was a breath of fresh air from the stillness of the castle. However, Aaron still needed answers. “Enough about that though, how did you get here? This place isn’t really easy to get to and you don’t dress like the people I’ve seen in town. Are you a foreigner?” Look at that, a few minutes in Ash’s presence and Aaron already began to babble. Riolu has never felt more embarrassed. 

“Oh I just woke up here!” Ash answered proudly as if that blunt reply was the answer to the ever growing questions in Aaron’s mind. Ash didn’t see the need to explain to his dream friend that everything was just a dream so Ash continued on his questioning, though this time aimed at the pokemon by Aaron’s legs. 

“Hey there I’m Ash! Can we be friends? How did you and Aaron meet? And have you seen a Caterpie before? I think they’re cool.” Riolu looked at the hand the 7 year old offered. Typically he’d look to his master for confirmation but judging by the still silence beside Riolu, Aaron was probably still reeling from Ash’s blunt answer. But.... There was something about this Ash character that made Riolu feel warm inside and is probably the reason why Aaron’s cheeks had some pink coloring on them. And so Riolu walked up to Ash and shook his hand. “Ri Ri Riolu!!” 

“Waaaaaah!!! You’re so cool!!!!!” The sparkles in Ash’s eyes return and he proceeds to descend into a flood of comments and questions, interlaced with compliments on coolness to Riolu, and occasionally Aaron. 

The Aura Guardian in training could only look at the two in fondness. His heart filled with an unknown form of happiness he didn’t know could happen from meeting someone for the first time. He walked beside Ash and his Riolu, interjecting from time to time at the conversation Ash was having with Riolu. Ash probably didn’t know that having such a smooth conversation with a pokemon was almost impossible for civilians. Another point added to the (unknown for the moment) growing list of impossibilities Ash was capable of. 

***

The sun was beginning to set and the trio found themselves in the middle of a lush forest, surrounded by other pokemon. Currently, while Ash was conversing with Aaron on the wonders of something called a television, a pidgey was nestled in the boy’s lap. Riolu had been glaring at it for 10 minutes straight and had it not been for Ash’s exuberant story telling, Aaron would have burst out laughing ages ago. 

A few minutes into a story about how Aaron and Riolu have been training to become Aura guardians, a topic that confused yet excited Ash, the 7 year old begins to slowly disappear. His body turning translucent and a small but noticeable blue glow around his body. Ash still hadn’t noticed as he continued to question Aaron more about his training. It’s only the scared squawking of the Pidgey on his lap that finally notifies him of the strange thing happening to his body. 

“Oh… Am I waking up?” Ash pouts. “Awwwwww and I wanted to know more about pokemon and this place called Rota…” He grumbles but nevertheless, gently picks the panicking Pidgey up and plops it down beside him instead. Ash stands and stretches and despite the fact that he was quite literally disappearing, smiles at his two new friends.

“Even if this is just a dream and I probably won’t see you guys again it was neat speaking to the both of you. I don’t really have many friends but aaaaaaah! How do I say this?” Clearly frustrated, Aaron decides to help the boy. He stands up too, Riolu in his arms, as he watches the boy he has come to care for in mere hours slowly disappear. 

“I know how you feel Ash. I don’t know about this all being a dream and honestly, this situation is getting weirder by the moment but it was wonderful meeting you. ” 

“Riolu! Ri!!!”

Tears gather in the corner of Ash’s eyes but he rubs them away just as quickly as they gather. “I hope we meet each other again even if it’s in another dream or or!! I’ll find a way to see you guys outside of dreams!” Ash says determinedly, smiling all the way. 

And in Aaron’s honest opinion Ash’s smile at this moment could put the sun to shame. He honestly, until now, doesn’t know what pushed him to do it but before Ash fully disappeared, Aaron grabbed Ash’s hand and pulled him close. “You are simply amazing.” Aaron mutters, gently kissing Ash’s cheek before letting go and slowly walking back. Ash's eyes blown wide with a wonderful shade of red dusting his soft cheek is an image Aaron would burn into his memories and would remember till the day he died. It was the last he saw of Ash before the boy disappeared in a sea of blue shimmering lights. 

It is a few minutes after, when the sun has already set and the stars light up what would usually be a darkened area, that the two begin to move. “Riolu I don't know why but I really feel like we’ll see him again.” Aaron says looking up at the sky. Riolu can only look at Aaron’s love sick foolish smile and agree. There was something special about Ash and honestly, if the boy put his mind to it, Riolu believes that Ash could do anything. 

“Ah right, would you like to come and wait for Ash with us?” Aaron kneels down towards the Pidgey. The small pigeon pokemon may not fully grasp what just happened but if it meant seeing his new friend again, he’d follow this stranger in blue. Pidgey leaps up and flies towards Aaron’s shoulder, determined to train and wait for when Ash came back. 

The two, now three, slowly walk back towards the castle, silently reminiscing in the short hours they spent with the boy with an aura as warm as the sun after a long storm. 

***

Somewhere else, a boy wakes up oddly embarrassed, the last vestiges of his dream slipping through his fingertips. He may not know what had gone on while he slept but something in him begins to burn. An urge to travel, to become the best, and to find something or someone and hold them close. 

***

And at another time, maybe far into the future or maybe in another world, two boys (with the large smiles and child-like wonder on their faces, you could really only call them boys) lay under a giant tree, surrounded by various pokemon and a stern Lucario watching over their peaceful sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This came from one dumb idea i had months ago on ash and aaron meeting pre-rota and it spiraled from there.


End file.
